Review/Test of 9A 3-Mode 5.5-12V Circuit board










Driver is from Intl-outdoor.com

Official specifications:

• Suitable for SST-90 and SBT-90 LEDs, Low voltage protection (2cells only), Thermostat protection
• Input Voltage: 5.5-12V (max 15V)
• Step-Down (Buck) driver
• Output current: 9A
• Constant current
• Modes: Low-Medium-High (10%-30%-100%)
• PCB diameter: 24mm
• Contact board diameter: 26mm
• Height: 16mm
• Gold plated contacts
• Tinned leads
• Thermal management, overheating protection 55-60C, the light will step down to low mode and flash 1 time each 5 seconds
• Low voltage protection on 2 cells: at 5.5V the light will step down to low mode and start flashing 2 times each 5 seconds
• Thermal pad material included

Measurements

Tested with: SST-90
Max. height: 17mm
Diameter: 24 & 26mm.
The driver has high, medium, low.
High: No pwm, only some switching noise at 450kHz.
Medium: 1kHz pwm with 28%
Low: 1kHz pwm with 3.3%
The driver has memory, the actual mode is stored when the light is off for a short time.
When turning off for changing mode, the driver is slight slow to turn on
Driver is buck only
The driver can be used with 2 or 3 LiIon batteries in series.



High



The driver keeps a nice constant output to the led, down to 5.5 volt, where the low battery warning turns on.
The efficiency is not that good, this means the driver needs a lot of cooling.



Up to 12 watt in the driver, it is a good detail that it has temperature warning.



About 31 watt into the led.



The driver is not fully filtered, some of the switching waveform reach the led, but it is at 450kHz, i.e. invisible.



At lower voltage the switching output looks slightly different.



The low battery warning is two flashes.



Medium



Medium uses a lower current and has the same low voltage limit. The actual regulation is done with pwm.
Due to the pwm I cannot do precise voltage measurement on the led, but assumes the voltage is 3.65 volt (See led curve above).








The pwm is at about 1kHz.



Low



At low the driver has a low efficiency at high voltage (There is not much change in input current with voltage).







The pwm is at about 1kHz.



Conclusion

The driver does the job, but with only low battery warning for two batteries and the low efficiency I am not that impressed.



Notes

How do I test a led driver
List of all tested drivers